I am going on an old memory from the early 1980s. It was an article in the Virginian Pilot newspaper. I worked with a girl who was in the Virginia Air National Guard. I remember her shoulder patch had a Confederate flag on it.
I guess I could be mistaken but it sure seems like I remember it that way.
...your recollection about that patch is spot on... for many many years, that was the official insignia of the unit...a circle with a stylized Confederate flag in it, an eagle on the top with a machine gun in one claw and a bomb in the other. That insignia was banished forever when some member of the unit complained about the symbolism of the Confedrate flag...reminded him of .... slavery or....something...I served in the VaANG for some 22 years and retired many years ago; I still miss the sound of jet engines....